The Buzz About Belly

by InvestorPlace Staff | May 8, 2012 12:25 pm

The Buzz About Belly

Belly, a fast-growing online consumer-loyalty operator, recently announced[1] a round of $10 million in financing. The lead investor is Andreessen Horowitz, which also has participated in fundings for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN[2]) and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA[3]).

Belly has developed a cloud platform for merchants to manage their loyalty programs. So when customers visit a store, they can use a mobile app or a physical card, which is processed by an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[4]) iPad.

However, Belly is more than just cool technology. The company also has a creative team that helps to develop engaging campaigns for merchants.

So far, the formula is working. According to the blog of Jeff Jordan, who is a partner with Andressen Horowitz: “Belly is attacking the market aggressively and has already signed up over 1,400 merchants and 200,000 consumers since launching last August. This is not particularly surprising as their original funding came from Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky at Lightbank, whose investment Groupon acquired merchants at a blistering pace.”